(June 10, 2002) CTC to Wolfowitz and Powell: Taiwan Issue Should Be Resolved Peacefully And With The Express Consent of the People / CTC 致函沃佛維茲與鮑威爾 “台海問題和平解決，並需獲得台灣人民同意”

CTC to Wolfowitz and Powell: Taiwan Issue Should Be Resolved Peacefully And With The Express Consent of the People

In a 6/7 letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, the co-chairs of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus thanked Wolfowitz for his recent clarifying remarks regarding U.S. policy toward Taiwan and encouraged him to insure that neither the press nor Chinese officials confuse the subtlety of the US “one China policy” with the absoluteness of the PRC’s “one China principle.”

And: “We hope that you will re-affirm our nation’s iron-clad commitment to Taiwan as agreed to under the Taiwan Relations Act and take steps to ensure that the Taiwan Strait issue be resolved peacefully and with the express consent of the people of Taiwan.”

In an almost identical letter, Caucus co-chairs Reps. Robert Wexler (D-FL), Steve Chabot (R-OH), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), urge Secretary of State Colin Powell, who will speak at the Asia Society in New York on Monday evening June 10, to “use Monday’s speech as an opportunity to issue a statement re-affirming our nation’s iron-clad commitment to Taiwan as agreed to under the Taiwan Relations Act and to take appropriate steps to ensure that the Taiwan Strait issue be resolved peacefully and with the express consent of the people of Taiwan.”

Reason for the co-chairs to write were mid-May statements Wolfowitz had made which were interpreted by some press reports as a move away from the balanced US approach toward Taiwan which has insisted that the island’s status was still undetermined and a step toward acceptance of the People’s Republic of China’s insistence that Taiwan was part of China.

FAPA President Wu Ming-chi states: “We at FAPA strongly agree with the CTC on their views on cross-Strait relations, especially with their view that Taiwan’s future should be determined peacefully and that the people of Taiwan have the right to determine their own future. After all, the right of self-determination is the ultimate cornerstone of a democratic society; it is the ultimate demonstration of the free will of a people.”